This post has been a long time coming. This is where it began and may be the most important tool we have to offer. This is the 10 Capabilities Position Paper revisited with the grid made easily available. If you have read the position paper you know that everything we recommend is in the “Minimum, Better and Best” format. Sometimes it’s equipment, others it’s training or experience. Most of us on the ground may never reach the “Best” level but we can always strive to attend another course or seek out a professional to teach us our shortcoming or at the very least, be aware of “right.” This is a huge step forward in anyone’s medical education, coming to the realization that you know what you don’t know. Your ignorance at any level is a detriment to your patient’s health.

This is how this all started, medics who care, seeking out smart guys to answer the burning questions tugging at their unconscious, knowing one day that they would be likely be called upon to answer it themselves in a time of crisis whether they had a solution or not.

A newly formed Prolonged Field Care Working Group (PFC WG), comprised of medical‐specialty subject matter experts, has been tasked to evaluate the current training and preparedness of Special Operations Force (SOF) medics. The first formal position paper from the working group suggests that medical providers consider the below list of capabilities when preparing their medics to provide PFC in austere settings. It is presented in a “minimum, better, best” format. The intent is to demonstrate those basic skills, with adjunctive skills and equipment that may be employed when considering what to train for Prolonged Field Care (PFC). At first glance, the list may seem somewhat simple, but it emphasizes basic medical skills, that, when put together, allow for a more comprehensive approach to critical patient care in an austere setting. Of note, equipment is relatively de‐emphasized since medical skills and training should be the focus of preparing the Special Operations provider for providing this care. PFC requires the following capabilities in at least some capacity. If you can provide these 10 capabilities in at least the minimum requirements, you are on your way to being prepared for PFC. Here are the recommendations:

PFC Sponsored by SOMA

Journal of Special Operations Medicine

CoTCCC.com

RDCR.org

Remote Damage Control Resuscitation by the Tactical Hemostasis, Oxygenation and Resuscitation Group

JSOMTC LMS

Link to the JSOMTC LMS Login

TMC

Tactical Medicine Collective Google Drive Folder

JTS CPGs

Institute of Surgical Research Clinical Practice Guidelines

SOF Sono

SOF SONO!

Lexicomp

Lexicomp App is FREE for US Military!

Borden Institute

Free medical books for US Mil Medics

PJ Medcast

Listen to Doc Rush on the PJ Medcast

Deranged Physiology

Intensive Care Physiology

EMCrit

Listen to EMCrit!

SMACC

Listen to the SMACC Podcast

REBEL EM

Rational Evidence Based Evaluation of Literature in Emergency Medicine Podcast

PHARM

Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine Podcast

Taming the SRU

Taming the Shock Resuscitation Unit by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center

Ultrasound Podcast

Ultrasound Podcast

ER Cast

ERCast Podcast

Care Flight Collective

Care Flight Collective Blog

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